


No One of Importance

by Teanjel



Category: Guild Wars 2 (Video Game)
Genre: Gen, Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns, Order of Whispers (Guild Wars), and it's actually much better than i remembered, dangerous asuran pseudo-science, i'm not really in this fandom anymore but i wrote this two years ago and never did anything with it, it just stops, post destruction of the pact angst, salvation pass raid, so thought i'd post it, the story isn't really finished
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-29
Updated: 2018-11-29
Packaged: 2019-09-02 08:49:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 5
Words: 8,136
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16783651
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Teanjel/pseuds/Teanjel
Summary: Can sylvari be trusted again, even after the dragon's death? What of those who'd already turned? And what's the Inquest doing in Maguuma so quickly?





	1. Just a Silly Sylvari

**Author's Note:**

> A bunch of OC's bumping into each other after the death of Mordremoth that was going to culminate in everyone clearing the raid together. Unfinished, probably forever, but it was a shame I barely really shared this with anyone at the time. The last chapter was me skipping ahead to write the darn Matthias fight already (which I never got gud enough to see for myself ingame lol). An ele healer main can dream, can't she?
> 
> Dang, I had some interesting headcanons about magic/dragons/bloodstones I finished explaining...

_Glitches and sparks, they changed the access code._

Plixx glared at the error message blinking on the console. A measly two weeks had gone by, and some idiot had decided to reset lab security. Maybe it was just Neeva changing all the codes to her graduation date again so that she wouldn’t have to memorize them. Let’s see, she joined four years ago, so that would make her…

“What are you doing?”

A sylvari voice. Plixx spun around. He was sure he’d blocked all the exits by now. There she was at the top of the stairs, waving at him idiotically. She certainly wasn’t acting like a minion of Mordremoth. Not yet, at least.

“It looks fascinating. I love all the purple and pink lights.”

What an ignorant bookah. Plixx sighed. “I am recalibrating this gate to take me back to Rata Sum.”

“Oh! This must not be Rata Sum then.”

“ _Obviously_ , no. These are the ruins of Rata Novus.”

“Sorry. I’ve never heard of it.”

“I’m not surprised.” Plixx watched warily as the sylvari took a few more steps and sat down, apparently to watch his progress. Probably too stupid to be a real threat, but it didn’t hurt to be cautious. He reached into his pocket to find the rough edges of a crystal housing.

The continuum crystal – one of a pair, his greatest triumph in chronomancy. Retune one, and the other would respond, no matter the distance between them. Theoretically, anyway; he’d been afraid to let either out of his sight. Currently they were rigged as a glorified fuse in case something went wrong, but if he could just get them back to his lab…the possibilities were limitless.

Maybe he just needed a stronger signal to connect with a receiving gate. Increasing the flux ratio might work. He picked up a spanner.

“So, where’s your krewe?”

“What?”

“Asura, don’t they travel in krewes?”

“You make us sound like a flock of moas. They’re dead.”

He should have brought golems. At least they were usually repairable after an encounter with a chak swarm. Plixx frowned. The polarity was still too high. These relay nodules were junk.

“There were five of us, to begin with,” continued the sylvari. “We were wardens and I was just training, but Captain Kean said I was a good mender and the Pact could use me, so we walked all the way to the Silverwastes.”

More sylvari. Not good. One he could keep an eye on, but five?

“Where are the others now?”

“The dragon told me to kill them.” She paused. “I – I ran away.”

After killing them, perhaps? Plixx looked up.

The sylvari sniffled and went on in possibly the most pathetic voice he’d ever heard. “I’ve been all alone for days, and there’s been vinetooths and mordrem and all sorts of awful things.” She took a choking breath and went on, a little louder. “The dragon’s not loud down here, but I’m so cold and there isn’t anything to eat –”

“Eternal Alchemy! Will you cease your whining?”

She immediately dissolved into wailing sobs that echoed throughout the cavern. This was worse than a mordrem. A mordrem would be dead by now.

Plixx saw a flash out of the corner of his eye and turned just in time to watch the tertiary nodule explode in a bright flash. He’d missed the telltale sizzle, of course. At least the sylvari was stunned into silence.

He climbed up and examined the smoking component. The damage wasn’t too bad. The casing wasn’t actually necessary – he just needed to replace the relay spike. Plixx heard a clink and glanced up to see the sylvari looking through the tools on his workbench.

“You wouldn’t happen to have a pistol with you?” He might be able to use the firing pin as a makeshift relay.

“No, I’m an elementalist.” The explosion must have shocked the distress out of her tiny brain; she sounded quite cheerful now.

“I’m only really good with water though. I keep getting sparks in the wrong places. I set a Lionguard tent on fire once, and this huge charr got really mad—”

“Would you pass me those calipers? Ouch!”

The tool she’d handed him was ice cold, covered in frost.

“Sorry, I thought it was a focus. I lost mine.”

“Don’t touch anything else.”

There was just enough of the relay spike left to crimp the ends together. Now to retighten the resonating bolt, and the field would activate again—

He grabbed the power cell just in time, barely holding it back with two hands. The housing had burned out, and now nothing held it in place. If Plixx let go, the resonating field would send it flying into the ceiling. Even if he was lucky and the roof didn’t collapse, he had no spare.

“Sylvari!”

“Oh, my name’s Sorcha, what’s your name?”

“Sorcha, whatever, turn that purple dial CLOCKWISE.”

“Okay. What’s your name?”

“Plixx. The dial.” He glared at her.

“I’m going!”

She leapt at the console, tripped, and smashed her elbows against the interface, bumping more controls as she scrambled to her feet.

“No! You clumsy bookah! Just the dial. CLOCKWISE!”

The cell dropped back into place. He hastily secured it and jumped down to examine the console. What if she’d retuned the entire matrix? This could set him back days.

“My ears.” Plixx stared at the screen in amazement. “Your stupidity did us some good. You stumbled upon a working access code.”

The polarity was still a tad high, but the connection was stable. He activated the last cell, and watched the familiar pink energy field fill the gate. ‘Sorcha’ gasped.

“So you’ll just walk through and be home again?”

“Theoretically. I’m hijacking the receiving gate, so the connection may not hold.”

She gave him a blank stare. Eternal alchemy, even her bright orange face was irritating. The color clashed not only with her entire outfit, but her ‘hair’ as well.

“I mean, you just walk through and you’re somewhere else?”

“Yes, that’s the idea. Never used a gate before or something?”

“I never had to.”

“Want to go through first?”

“Really? You’d let me try?”

“Certainly. Just come back right away so I know it worked. Ignore any other asura that might be, uh, standing around.”

“Okay!”

She took a deep breath, ran up the ramp, and leapt through the gate, as if she were diving into a pool of water. She ducked through again a moment later, beaming.

“It works! It’s amazing. Come on!”

Without warning, she picked him up and ran for the gate.

“Put me down!”

She dropped him just on the other side, on a grassy hill somewhere.

Plixx looked around, puzzled. He seemed to be in Metrica Province, the Akk Wilds maybe? But Sorcha hadn’t changed the Inquest identity key. The access code was randomly acquired, certainly, but he still should’ve ended up someone’s lab.

“Plixx, what mischief are you up to here?”

Sarkk’s voice. Sarkk, who had ruined one of Plixx’s most promising research projects. Not the first asura he wanted to meet.

“And who are you?” Sarkk looked over his shoulder at Sorcha. “What are you doing following this unfollowable nuisance?”

“Oh, I just found him I guess. Why are you so surprised? I thought asura were good at expecting the unexpected.”

“She’s just a silly sylvari, Sarkk,” Plixx interrupted. “No one of importance. Won’t stop following me. If you would kindly take her off my hands—”

Sarkk didn’t even look at him.

“We made a gate from Rata Novus!” cried Sorcha.

“Rata what?”

 _Please don’t believe her,_ thought Plixx.

“In the middle of Maguuma! Isn’t it amazing?”

Now Sarkk looked at him. “So, you followed the Pact.”

Time to leave.

“I really don’t have time to debate her absurd notions, I’ve got work to do.” Plixx turned to run back through the gate.

A wall of flame rose suddenly across the ramp.

“Oops!” Sorcha held up Plixx’s spanner. “This must not be a focus either. I just wanted to blow all these dead leaves off the path.”

Plixx heard a click, and didn’t have to turn around to know Sarkk had a pistol pointed at his back.

“I think the Pact has enough to deal with without undercover Inquest agents planning sabotage.”

“That’s preposterous! My krewe was solely engaged in research.”

“We both know what kind of ‘research’ you specialize in, Plixx. Give me a full confession and I’ll turn you in to the Peacekeepers instead of the Order.”

Either way, the Order would have direct access to Rata Novus and the surrounding jungle. Worse, Sarkk would get the credit for it. Plixx glanced up at the wall of fire blocking the gate. If anything, it was growing taller.

“Fine. We joined a sector of the Priory dedicated to studying the local fauna. Our assignment was –”

Three illusions and Plixx ran four directions. Always a good idea to teleport in the middle of a sentence.

He got lucky. Sarkk shot two and Sorcha, apparently trying to put out the fire, flung ice crystals everywhere, but Plixx made it out of range, then circled back to hide nearby. He’d been right to run instead of fight. Two more agents had appeared out of stealth, one of them managing to withstand Sorcha’s icy gusts long enough to pull the ‘focus’ out of her hands. At least she could hinder both sides.

But it was only a matter of time until they doused the flames and secured the other end of the gate. He couldn’t take on all three, and there would only be more later. Plixx sighed and pulled the continuum crystal from his pocket. He turned it over and twisted a knob on the housing. Leagues away, in Rata Novus, the second crystal activated the emergency turrets he’d placed around the gate. He twisted further. The turrets overloaded.

Plixx watched with growing satisfaction as the Metrica gate lost the Novus connection and deactivated. His continuum crystals would be revolutionary, as soon as he built another. But first, he was going to kill Neeva for changing the access code.


	2. Tall Boots

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry to spam anyone's notifications! I've never posted multiple chapters on here before, I don't know how this works...  
> Tacita's a thief, and she's got a new prosthetic leg she's getting used to. Taana's another mesmer of course. Are all asuran mesmers like that? Probably.

_Tall boots_ , Tacita told herself again. _Just boots up to the knee_. But she could feel the metal vibrate beneath her elbow as she knelt to adjust a buckle on her other foot. At least the device was silent. She’d get used to it. Hopefully. It was far better than the alternative. No, don’t think about that either.

“You coming? Wait around too long and those bookahs might change their mind.”

The asuran voice was vaguely familiar. _Gods, it wasn’t_ —

The all-too-familiar figure of Agent Taana stepped around a corner, waving her greatsword like a ridiculously oversized flag. “Hey, Thief. Try to keep up.”

 _Explorer. Scout._ Thief was years ago. She’d given up on ever hearing her name from Taana, but ‘Priory’ might be an improvement. Grenth, by now she’d even settle for ‘Human.’

She stepped past without making eye contact and heard the illusion shatter behind her. Typical. Taana was the last agent she wanted to work with, but at least she was getting out of Tarir. Staring at shimmering golden walls had started to make her nauseous.

“Listen.” Taana was suddenly standing three feet from her knees. “If Ceera realizes it’s started raining out there she’ll send you back to bed. Additionally, we barely have the necessary time at present.”

She didn’t bother placing the portal a step or two away. No, from Taana’s perspective portals were for placing directly under people’s feet to drop them into unexpected locales. Tacita blinked at the sudden change to shadowed glade. Funny. She’d nearly forgotten she was in the middle of a jungle. _So many trees_. But caves – that would be interesting.

“You acquainted with the mission?”

_Yes, but saying so won’t shut you up._

“Zildi reinstituted Novan security systems, but didn’t stick around to assess their continuing status. I’ve been entrusted with maintenance and research in the western district. Should be completely routine, but I could use an extra pair of eyes.”

 _Really._ As if an Order of Whispers _mesmer_ needed help staying alert. No, this had nothing to do with being useful, or telling a bossy asura when to dodge. It was a ‘beta test.’ That’s what she was now, an experiment to catapult a struggling inventor to notoriety. Hopefully not Taana. Even Tacita could tell she was an awful golemancer. Well, they’d given her a pistol. That was worth something. She might disappear now, if she had any idea where she was going. Better to wait, and learn what she could.

The rain hadn’t properly started yet, though the sky was dark and swirling, especially to the south. As they climbed to the edge of a mossy bluff, wind cut through Tacita’s coat. For a second she thought her right leg was numb with cold. _Tall boots. That was all. Nothing out of the ordinary._ Dodging might get nasty. And Death Blossom? That was going to take some practice.

Taana pointed down a large, crumbling hole ahead of them. “There’s our entrance. Gliding might be calamitous, in your condition. If you’d prefer, I’ll—”

Tacita leapt from the edge before Taana could drop her through another portal. It was hard to judge distance in the shadows, and she landed hard. Blood seeped from the top of the device, inking a dark line across her knee. Not ‘programmed’ to take a fall? What did they think she planned on doing with her life, serve tea?

Well, Taana, at least, expected her to help kill every last chak they came across. For an Order of Whispers agent, Taana was oddly adverse to the concept of **sneaking.** No, it was an explosion of illusions and chaos energy and pink butterflies whenever they encountered the smallest threat. Mesmers. Who did they think they were, anyway?

The first control panel was dead, wet and frigid, with more moisture dripping from the ceiling. A nearby mushroom slumped in a pile of brown sludge

“Melted ice. That’s unexpected.”

_Sure, point out the obvious._

“Is…someone there?” a weak voice spoke from the shadows.

“Agent Kean!” Taana suddenly rushed forward.

Tacita drew her gun but stopped seeing Taana bend over a body against the wall.

“Taana…” The sylvari turned his head to face them. His eyes were wide, harrowed. “Sorcha…Mordremoth…couldn’t stop…”

Taana leaned in closer. “What happened, Kean?”

He struggled to sit up, reaching for something on the ground next to him.

The gunshot was doubly loud in the narrow cave. Shooting sylvari was still an odd experience. No blood, just a dark hole, maybe a hint of slow-moving sap.

Taana spun around immediately, clumsy in her surprise. She cast a wave of magic which Tacita easily ducked, then stumbled forward, leaning against her sword as if she were dizzy. Tacita just watched her.

So she didn’t understand yet. Didn’t know what Mordremoth really meant. _Lucky._

The asura glared, opening and closing her mouth, but silently, for once. Finally, she hissed: “You are not fit for duty, Explorer. You can wait out the rest of this mess in Tarir. Pact Marshall Trahearne will decide what to do with your kind.”

“You think any of them are coming back?” Tacita half-laughed, but her ribs hadn’t healed yet. “That the Pact is just going to put itself back together?”

“Even in the Order of Whispers, we don’t shoot a helpless enemy in cold blood.”

“You’d kill a smoldering destroyer. A limping risen—”

“That’s—”

“He was armed.” Tacita motioned to the axe lying next to Kean’s shoulder, but Taana didn’t turn to look.

“Of course he was armed. Anything that’s not armed doesn’t last an hour here.”

Tumbling rocks echoed behind them, and both froze.

“We’re going back.” Taana announced loudly. “Right now.”

 _Nice try._ Tacita kicked a rock through the illusion and slipped off in the direction of the noise. She found Taana ahead of her, crouched at the edge of a crumbling precipice. A solitary figure was climbing towards them, a rifle slung over their back. What light there was revealed hair that was all branches and leaves, and skin that glowed crimson.

“Don’t you dare step out of line,” hissed Taana in Tacita’s ear. “I make the calls this time.”


	3. Unsettling Outcomes

The sylvari took the climb slowly, wearily working her way up the crumbling stone. A Pale Reaver, apparently, but not one Taana had met. Certainly not one of their agents. And all by herself – might be a very good or a very bad sign. Kean’s corpse behind them boded ill.

That had been an unpleasant business, though the agent had seemed to be dying anyway. And Tacita… well, that had certainly surprised her. She’d have to keep a sharp eye on her until she came to her senses. Hopefully Trahearne would come up with some reasonable solution, and Taana wouldn’t have to intervene. The things she’d done for that bothersome human…

Taana stood so the sylvari would see her, “News from the front?”

She looked up and nodded, then kept climbing. Well, Taana wasn’t about to wait for her to climb all the way up, not at that pace. They were wasting too much time as it was. Portal, blink, portal. Fast enough. The sylvari took the sudden jump well, though she seemed too tired for much to phase her.

“Thank you,” she gasped. She frowned and leaned back against the wall of the cavern, eyes closed, still breathing heavily. She wasn’t as colorful as many sylvari, resting like an old tree with weathered bark and dry red leaves.

Taana offered her flask of water. “Well?”

“Mordremoth is dead.” Just a statement, tired and cheerless. Powdered bark crumbled off her hands as she took the flask. A normal feature of wooden skin, or the sylvari equivalent of blisters?

“That was fast. You sure?”

“Yes. Marshal Trahearne is dead, too.”

 _Perfect._ Exactly what the Pact didn’t need. Things were a mess already, without having to find a leader they could agree on all over again.

“How?” Tacita spoke for the first time.

“I don’t know.” She paused, looking at neither of them, but the pulsing lines of ley energy above their heads. The blue light made strange shadows on her face, almost skull-like. “They say he died a hero.”

 _Of course he did, he’s Trahearne._ Maybe that would be enough to fix the ugly rumors that had been circulating. Though he in person would’ve been far better. “Who’s in charge until we find a new marshal?” Another important consideration, but the sylvari flinched at the question. _Well, sorry, I didn’t know him personally. I need to know where my orders are coming from._

“Laranthir.”

 _Vigil. Brilliant._ It was Vigil logic that had them all stranded in the jungle. _Sure, let’s go blast the jungle with our big guns…_ And was another sylvari really the best choice under the circumstances?

The sylvari handed the flask back to Taana. “I’m returning to Tarir with a full report.”

“What? No, you’re obviously exhausted. How long have you been running?” _And why aren’t you an agent?_ For some reason, Zildi and the others hadn’t made sure the first messenger back was a member of the Order.

“Since midnight. I’ll be fine.”

 _Midnight. You must be Vigil._ “No, you won’t. At least eat something. Thief! We’re camping here. No time to accomplish everything in a day, anyway.” _And apparently it’s up to me to insure the Order knows the full story._

The food was terrible, of course – not something the Exalted had been particularly helpful with – but at least she got the sylvari talking. Rosia, her name was.

She told a strange story of Mordrem champions who returned multiple times after they’d been killed, a long twisting dragon, and islands floating in the sky. A soldier’s front-line perspective; not what would be in the official report, but perhaps more useful in the long run. Observations about ‘ley-islands,’ for example, would be more telling than Laranthir’s assumptions. Then the dragon’s death, and the unexpected reappearance of the Commander’s squad, bearing Trahearne’s corpse. There was something more about that, but Rosia avoided even guesses as to what had happened. Either she really knew nothing, or she had instructions not to say more.

Well, the talking seemed to do her good. She had a definite tendency to clam up, and Taana had to keep prompting her, at least at first. In some kind of shock, apparently, not that surprising, but definitely annoying.

Tacita seemed a bit uneasy – sitting too close to a sylvari, perhaps? It always took time to figure out Tacita’s motives, and she seemed especially stubborn since the accident. A little gratitude might be appropriate, but the poor creature had a general distrust for kindness. Perhaps a reasonable attitude, given her upbringing, but you’d think she’d have learned better by now. Her brother’s transformation had been much quicker, and more permanent.

“Tacita, right?” Rosia turned to the human. “You’re not the Tacita who was onboard the _Delora’s Fortune,_ by any chance?”

Tacita just nodded. A fine taciturn pair those two made. But Taana heard something in the pause – the shadow of a distant echo. Not that the other two would hear anything for a while, small-ears.

“I was a teacher for several years in the grove – Kievy and Ailin were students of mine.” She extended her hand, but Tacita hesitated a moment before touching it.

_Oh Tacita, did you really spend four years learning to trust people only to go back to suspicion now? We can’t have you slipping back. You were happy, weren't you? Why do you have to mess everything up again?_

“I found your crash site. Did anyone else—?”

“No.” Tacita cut her off. “I’m the only one left.”

 _Well, as far as we can ascertain._ Taana pulled out her scepter and twirled it a little, as if absentmindedly. A clone crept silently around a corner and deeper into a cavern. She would go herself and leave an illusion behind, but leaving Tacita alone with a sylvari was a risk she’d rather not take.

“Then,” Rosia produced a pistol, “you should probably have this. Found it in the rubble.”

Well, she might have to confiscate it later, but some kind of memento might be helpful.

As Tacita leaned forward to take the weapon, Taana saw blood on her knee.

“Hold on. You’re leaking.” _Alchemy, Tacita. This is a test. You’re supposed to say something if you have a problem._

“Is she alright?”

“Fine, fine, the just need to make a few adjustments.”

The sylvari stared in surprise as Taana found a hidden catch in the metal bands around Tacita’s calf and opened a small glowing control panel.

“We pulled her out of a blighting pod – most of her, anyway. Got her walking again.” Tacita might have explained in her own way, but Taana didn’t have the attention to listen to her. Always took more effort to listen than to speak, and speaking had the advantage of knowing exactly what was said. She still had a clone to keep track of, and Tacita’s prosthetic was proving frustrating. It couldn’t possibly be running out of power so soon?

“And you’ve recovered.”

 _Yes, talk to Tacita._ That was fine.

The sylvari shook her head. “Technology still fascinates me. We can hope Logan Thackery will recover as easily.”

“Logan?” No, Taana had to keep listening. This was important.

“He still hasn’t woken.”

“Woken from what? You said you’d found Trahearne, but you didn’t mention the others.”

Sparks! Three things at once shouldn’t be causing this much of a problem. But the clone had been standing stupidly by itself, and Tacita’s problem still wasn’t making sense.

“You didn’t get the first messengers? Three sylvari and a norn?”

“We—”

_Not now, Tacita. You really want to bring up what you just did?_

“What data did we forfeit?”

Blast. The clone had disappeared. Forget about them, and they would do that, but Taana hadn’t had that problem for years. Too many things to worry about. Whatever the mysterious creature was, it had been moving quickly, she’d been able to tell that much. Almost as if it knew exactly where they were…

“Zojja and Logan were rescued from blighting pods and still recovering. You were to prepare Tarir for their arrival. We also asked for reinforcements if you could spare them.” The sylvari looked distracted, too. Obviously the messengers meant more to her than the message. “Are you sure you haven’t found any sign of the messengers? I would stay to search, if I could, but I must get to Tarir. Perhaps they’ll make their way there eventually. It’s much safer now.”

 _Well, mordrem do seem to have subsided, but don’t underestimate these chak._ Should she warn them about the intruder? No, better to surprise it.

It was another sylvari that came barreling towards them, though not at them. She looked past them to continue down the tunnel, but yelped when she saw them, and turned to run back the way she’d come.

“Lily! Lillianeth!” Rosia grabbed her hand. The new sylvari stopped, but she was shaking uncontrollably.

Taana leapt up the passage, a clone on either side, ready to stop whatever pursuit.

“There’s probably nothing there,” Rosia called after her. “I’ve seen this before. Even after the dragon’s death.” Lily was crying on her shoulder now. “So many terrible memories…”

Tacita. Where was Tacita? She shouldn’t be running around with that panel open.

“Lily, Lily. It’s alright. The dragon’s dead now. We’re safe. Free.”

No, there she was, right where she’d been sitting. _Well, you might have given **everyone** stealth._

The second sylvari gradually calmed down, sobs ceasing but still clinging to Rosia. Lillianeth was a brilliant green, a bright contrast to the blues and grays of the cave system. Why had she been so difficult to spot? Taana’s skill with clones wasn’t that rusty, was it? She may have been stealthed, which might indicate she wasn’t as out of sorts as she seemed. Then again, Taana knew from personal experience it was surprisingly easy to cast stealth if you were panicked enough.

“Now, I need you to tell me what happened.”

Lily was silent.

A kind attempt, but probably too kind. Does she think she can be sister and commanding officer at once?

“Lily, what happened to Sorcha and Kean and Hinrik?”

“We…it was…blood…screams…they broke his hammer.”

“Hinrik is dead?”

She nodded.

“And the others? Sorcha and Kean?”

“Both dead,” interrupted Taana. “Kean’s body isn’t far, if you’d like to see it.”

Behind Rosia’s back, Tacita was glaring at Taana. _Well, your version of the story probably stretches the truth, too._ You couldn’t spend too much time worrying about friends who were probably dead. Sad, but practical.

“No,” Rosia answered quietly. “I don’t need to see any more corpses. I’ll take Lily with me to Tarir.”

“Not before nightfall. You two both need rest.” It meant Taana would have to keep watch, but she had a saturated Novan control panel to fix anyway. And the problem with Tacita’s prosthetic to figure out. _Sparks._ It would be a long night.

They must still be getting some light from the surface, as the cavern grew darker at night, bluer in leyline-light. As the shadows grew, the glow of the two sylvari became more prominent; Lilly a light purple, Rosia a deep red. The colors of Mordremoth and the Inquest, respectively, mused Taana. Not like they can help it.

Tacita lay still, her breathing slow, apparently fast asleep, but Taana knew better. The closest thing that thief came to deep sleep was if someone managed to knock her out cold. Otherwise, she’d wake up if someone dropped a dry leaf on her. She really should have sent the girl back to Tarir for whatever disciplinary hearing was proper, but sending her with the sylvari would’ve been idiotic. What a mess. Insane, paranoid, or just plain tired, they were still fighting Mordremoth. Killing him had been a solid start, but rebuilding what he’d destroyed was going to be an undertaking.


	4. Unanswered Questions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cliffhanger with no followup ever written, whoops. I wrote the title at the time, but it's even more appropriate now.

Tacita lay awake, eyes closed, listening.

_Know your surroundings. Then act. It only takes one mistake to die. Notice every detail. If you’re missing information, at least know more than those around you, or something important no one knows. It’s the unexpected that kills thieves, so never let yourself be surprised. Be ready to surprise, or be gone._

Street advice for a young girl alone in the slums of Divinity’s Reach. Her brother’s code. _Don’t miss anything. Never be surprised._ The advice had kept Tacita out of dangerous situations long enough to learn to be deadly herself. She’d never stopped following it. The strict attention to details had made her a stellar scout, and the instinct to stay one step ahead of everyone around her had given her a knack for solving puzzles. But it was all to the same purpose: avoiding surprises. Staying alive. Every slip-up grated on her. She should be dead.

That was why, though they meant to whisper so she wouldn’t wake, Tacita knew Rosia offered to watch until dawn, and Taana let her. She trusted Taana about as far as she trusted anyone – not very far at all – but the sylvari? Of course not. She might, perhaps, be entirely sincere, but, if she wasn’t, the appearance of honesty only made her more dangerous. It was safer never to trust anyone.

Tacita heard Taana settling down to sleep, and the sylvari strode a few paces away.

Silence. Then the footsteps returned. And back. Her breathing didn’t sound normal. Anxious. Trembling. The pacing stopped.

Tacita knew what was coming. No Keavy this time. No windy cliff.

Tacita opened one eye very slowly. No shadow over her, no one watching to see if she was sleeping. Weapons. One pistol in her belt, another within arm’s reach, a knife in her boot no one knew about. The second pistol was Keavy’s, of course. It had been strange to see it again. She’d left it behind on purpose. Foolish, really, to leave a good weapon behind, but she hadn’t wanted to touch it.

Taana was asleep, mouth agape, revealing a neat row of tiny teeth. The green sylvari, Lily, curled in a tight ball, clutching her knees. Also asleep. And the other? _No, don’t get tense. Waste of energy._ Tacita was ready this time. Except her ‘leg’ was switched off, to ‘save battery.’ _Gods._ This was ludicrous. She knew the technology was out there, even if she had to steal it. Reach down and find a switch with her thumb. Another step.

Tacita stood and entered stealth. Years ago, Keavy had explained to her that this was magic, the kind that all Tyrians naturally possessed. It had been strange to think of it that way – cloaking was simply something she did, like speaking or fighting. It came naturally, with practice, not any scholarly learning or spell. Keavy’s approach had been so odd to watch – all of the technical parameters and theories, but none of the instinct.

There she was, a little ways off, sitting with her back to Tacita. Then a light hiss, a sudden glow, and the sylvari was only a silhouette bending over a torch-flame. Shadows flickered as the sylvari’s arms moved around the light, and something rustled. The flame leapt higher, dark orange: burning paper. The torch was small and very bright, silent and nearly smokeless – probably asuran-made. The sylvari burnt each page carefully, watching to see that it was entirely destroyed. It was easy enough to snatch a few from the waiting stack. Unless Rosia was counting, she wouldn’t realize they were missing. She burned everything face down.

* * *

“There. That’s it.” Taana finally closed the panel after nearly an hour of adjusting the settings of Tacita’s prosthetic. “I had to divert more power to the balance matrix. Unfortunately, that means you’ve only got 16 hours of battery. Should be able to recharge it while you sleep. I can’t fit another power core inside without turning you into a walking bomb. Most of this thing is really a casing to prevent you from exploding if shot.”

_Might have been nice to hear that before I left Tarir._

The two were alone again, the sylvari having left quietly earlier that morning.

“This Novan panel’s operational, but the moisture in the conduits is not optimal. I’ll run one final diagnostic, then we’re leaving.”

Tacita spread out one of Rosia’s pages and glanced at the first few lines. She hadn’t tried to read them earlier, of course. Reading was a delicate business. Too easy to let your guard down, staring at paper.

_Ailin, how can you make an announcement like that and disappear? Sorcha was so disappointed…_

No. Not now. She’d read it later. She folded it with the others and put it back in her pocket. Her obvious, on-the-outside-of-her-coat pocket. Apparently Ceera had burned her old coat. Something else she’d need to fix for herself as soon as she got the chance.

“Still substandard, but sufficient temporarily. Hurry up, Thief. We’ve got six more panels to inspect before Zildi returns to point out all the errors I made.”

“What about the other messenger?” Tacita asked quietly.

“What?”

“The other sylvari. The one we didn’t find.”

Taana stared at her, as if stunned to find she cared. And kept staring.

Taana’s voice called from farther ahead: “You coming?”

A clone. Of course she wouldn’t bother continuing a conversation she considered pointless.

They continued in the direction Rosia had come, slipping downhill between boulders and sliding over loose gravel. Taana was waiting at the bottom.

“You lied to them last night,” accused Tacita, catching up.

“And you didn’t? ‘All my crew is dead’ seems a bit bigger assumption than ‘one incompetent sylvari couldn’t survive alone.’”

“Incompetent?”

“Eminently suitable word for Sorcha, at least when it comes to combat.”

_You know her, and you still don’t want to bother finding out if she’s alive or dead._

Taana stopped and folded her arms. “Listen, it’s obvious what happened. Sorcha went all dragon-minion crazy and tried to kill the other two. Couldn’t you see Lily didn’t want to talk about it? We don’t need to waste anymore effort trying to find her. It’ll just cause more trouble. You can’t save everyone.” She paused and added pointedly: “You can’t kill everyone, either. Just focus on the mission.”

A pebble clattered in the dark behind them, then another. With a sudden crash, a figure slid down the slope to land clumsily next to them.

“What the Eternal Alchemy are **you** doing here?”

“Please don’t send me back!” It was Lillianeth, looking a bit nervous and battered from her sudden tumble, but not the hysterical character from the night before. Taana stared at her, waiting for an explanation. “I know Sorcha’s still out there. She’s got to be.”

“You seemed particularly hesitant to say that last night.”

“I’m sorry. I was scared.” Lily looked down at hands, clasping them together nervously. “I’d been alone too long, I think. I’m much better now. And— I could tell you were lying.” She looked up at Taana. “You were making sure Rosia would go back to Tarir, and not be slowed down worrying.”

“You determined I was lying?”

“Well, I guessed, really. But I’m usually right. Rosia says it’s a gift from the Pale Tree.”

_Foolish, to reveal a talent like that. Explain it and you lose most of the advantage._

“Does Rosia know you’re here?”

“She does. She doesn’t know why, though.”

Taana frowned. “Either way, we’re stuck with you. I’m not sending you back alone. Can you defend yourself?”

She nodded. “I can use a bow.”

“Don’t have one. Sword?”

Lily took it carefully, as if it was a bit heavy for her, but her grip was solid, practiced. “We’re going to look for Sorcha now, right?”

“What precisely happened to the four of you?”

“It was a bit confusing." Lily spoke carefully. "We were attacked. They killed Hinrik. Captain Kean and Sorcha ran one way, and I ran another. Up here.” Lily pointed at a narrow shaft leading steeply up. “We were sticking to the surface, trying to avoid chak.”

“How far?”

“Just near the tunnel entrance. They jumped down to hide. I…wasn’t fast enough. Went a different way.”

“Fine. Follow me, both of you.” Taana gave Tacita a sharp glare, then turned to the tunnel.

_I could just leave you alone with the sylvari._ Leaving had been a possibility all along, but Tacita wasn’t keen on staying in the heart of Maguuma longer than she had to. She’d need the Pact to get her back to central Tyria, at the least.

Taana stopped, and they heard a distant shatter above them. “You two ready for this? Blighting pod. Dead norn, in rough shape.”

“Yes. I think so,” said Lily.

Tacita pushed past both them. _You think I’m going to go into shock or something, Taana?_ She hadn’t actually **seen** anything, herself. _Never be taken alive_ had been another of her brother’s warnings. Bandits weren’t kind to their captives, or friends who had spent time in Seraph prisons. Her only memory of recent incidents were a final fierce struggle in the dark, a vague memory of pain, hanging upside down. Then Tarir, and golden walls. Far too many golden walls.

There it was. Norn corpses always seemed a little…big, but this definitely wasn’t the first she’d seen. About what you’d expect to find, if someone died in a giant thornbush. No more disturbing than any corpse would be. It wouldn’t be a problem. It was the shadows – yes. The shadows branches made, and something about the texture of bark. But she’d be fine. She could still navigate a forest normally, stay out of trouble. But she wouldn’t be leaning against trees without a good reason.

“That’s him.” Lily whispered. “Hinrik.”

“There’s another corpse on the other side.” Taana said.

“And it--?” began Lily.

“Sylvari. Female. Hard to determine much else, I’m afraid. I think we can accurately guess.”

“It wasn’t very likely, was it? I…I guess I know now.”

“Is this Zildi’s?” Tacita pointed into a cluster of ferns, to a golem lying in pieces.

“Certainly not. Surprisingly close to these blighting pods. Come on, Lil, we could use another pair of eyes.”

That was Taana. Deal with problems by moving on, quickly.

It wasn’t a golem, but a power suit, with dead asura, covered in some kind of blue crystal. _Chak._ Following the torn ground behind it they found a control panel, and a row of some kind of mini conduit towers. More dead asura, in Priory uniforms, but no one Tacita recognized.

“Well, whatever this was, it’s unauthorized. Research groups are supposed to register an itinerary if they’re headed out this far.” Taana looked at Lily.

“Maybe they crashed nearby,” The sylvari offered.

_Apparently I don’t exist anymore._ Fine. Maybe she would find something here to fix her battery problem.

“Improbable. With this equipment?”

“It’s not salvaged from Rata Novus?”

“Certainly not. This is cutting edge. Dynamics only released the prototypes a month before the fleet launched. Don’t touch that, Thief, you don’t know what it does.”

_It’s a bifurcate condenser, used to collect magical energy and charge power cores. The Priory uses them to absorb excess magic during experiments._

Taana scanned the panel, flicked a dead switch on and off with no result, and declared the system overloaded. _Obviously._

“We’ll send another squad back to recover this; it’s predominately salvageable, and of estimable value.”

“Haven’t taken anything,” Tacita mumbled. _Yet._ The circuits might be blown, but whatever they’d been charging was gone. Someone must have taken the cores and escaped. Which squad was this, anyway? It looked like the Priory’s newly formed taxonomy crew…

“Inquest.” Tacita stood and held out a small disk.

Taana snatched it and examined it herself, as if doubtful a human would know anything about an asuran organization. “Clearance badge. Hard for new recruits to get their hands on, frequently carried everywhere, even when undercover. Conceited idiots.”

_But what were the Inquest doing here in the first place?_

“There’s a hole over here!” Lily had wandered a short distance away.

The hole itself was small, but dark and very deep. The edges had the look of an overhang, leaning and crumbling inward. Lily tossed a pebble in, and it was several seconds before they heard it strike the bottom.

“A subterranean detonation,” remarked Taana, pulling Lily away from the edge.

“What?”

“Something exploded. Don’t fall in.”

_How else will we understand what happened here?_ Tacita ran for the pit before the asura could stop her, and leapt over the last few feet of the unstable edge. She waited an instant, dark air rushing past her, one hand on the release for her glider. _Now_. A hard jerk, and then a slow glide to the bottom. _This is what scouts are for._

The chamber was lighter than it appeared from above, a circle of sunlight illuminating more control panels, theses charred and scattered in pieces.

“Analysis?”

_I’ll tell you when I get back up there, Taana. I’m not going to yell every time I see something._

After a pause, Taana called again. “What’s your return strategy?”

_Climb, probably._ Or, more likely, Taana would become impatient and port her up.

To her left curved a broken piece of an arch of some kind. No, a gate. And here – a turret? Something glowed bright pink beneath the rubble.

Above her, Lily screamed. The light flickered, and a shower of rocks and soil narrowly missed her head. Dodging with one metal knee is just as difficult as it sounds, even if you have been doing acrobatics all your life.

Lily came next, gliding too fast, stumbling to her knees as she landed. The glider was Taana’s, asuran-sized. “The chak came back.”

“Where’s Taana?” _Maybe she shouldn’t have left them alone._

“I’m coming. Stay together!” The mesmer was far above them, blinking between unsteady edges and tenuous handholds. “The whole ceiling’s coming down; get ready.”

She landed next to them, the purple of a portal flashed, and all light disappeared. The air was cold and stale. Tacita stood, searching for some light, listening. Lily sniffled and started crying.

“Where—?” began Tacita

“Shut up,” hissed Taana. “I have no idea where we are.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Aaaand I never wrote the chapter after this! They went back to Metrica, Taana had created a portal _on top_ of Blixx's crystal, which copied to the other crystal. Which he was hiding in Thaumanova... And then of course bump into Sorcha, an old friend, and Blixx, an old enemy.


	5. Holding

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This is not really a chapter, just something I was working on for much later in the story. Lily was working for Mordremoth (surprise!), and still considers the Pale Tree a traitor, even if she's got no other real home left. Maguuma is her home now, get out Mantle!  
> Kane is Tacita's long-lost brother, a double agent in the White Mantle that disappeared years ago. They weren't sure he was really helping until he got stabbed in the neck for leading them to Matthias...  
> And Roborn is a soundless sylvari guardian who loves Sorcha but they're both kind of oblivious and it took ages to figure out they both liked each other. And then there's soundless thing. Angst I will never write. Oh well. Does anyone care? It's posted now.

“I’ll defend you,” Roborn told her. “Just focus on your healing. I know you can do it.”

It was distracting at first, the noise and flashes around them. Matthias was an elementalist too, and there was ice and smoke in the air. But Roborn’s magic was always there; a shimmering blue wall, a well-placed shield, or a burst of blue flame.

And Kane needed all her focus. His eyes were open, but turned upward, unseeing, his hands curled and shaking at his sides. All his strength was in breathing, and his gasps were ugly, thick sounds. The blade in his neck glowed dark red, and seemed to drink his blood. It made Sorcha’s hands tingle as she drew it out. And then the dreadful task of mending, carefully pulling wounds together with water and ice in a way she still didn’t understand. One mistake, and she might choke him. His gurgled breathing would stop and he would be dead. There. His breathing was slower, but it was normal now. He closed his eyes, exhausted. He was still so pale. He’d bled too much. Maybe she could—

The scream cut through the battle-noise and her own concentration, and Sorcha reacted instinctively. Taana, too, was lying on the floor of the pavilion, her arm nearly crushed, her illusionary bright colors and extra 2 inches gone. Sorcha could heal her, too. She would. It was just harder at this distance, but she couldn’t leave Kane. She might have been able to handle that much. Gotten Taana up again, and everything would have been all right. But the next moment Rosia was bent over, clutching at the shard of ice in her chest, and Sorcha was keeping three people alive. Then four. She caught them each clumsily, at the last instant, straining to keep breath in them, gripping her staff with knuckles almost white. She could just heal one, then focus on the others. But it was much harder to concentrate on mending wounds while straining to keep three others alive. Then someone else fell, and she knew for certain she couldn’t do it.

“Roborn.” Her voice was a whisper through her teeth. He didn’t hear her, of course. She made the only other sound she could manage. She screamed.

Roborn spun around and fell to his knees in front of her, a blade in his back. She held him, too. And then more. Was she the only one standing now? She held them each individually, but didn’t have the energy to count them. She should be dead.

“Impressive.”

The voice was a whisper in her ear, very close. She realized her eyes were squeezed shut. She opened them a crack. It was Matthias, standing inches from her.

“That’s a lot power for one little sylvari.”

Something about him was different, was wrong (too big?), but she couldn’t sort the information in her head. She was darting from one friend to another, snatching them away from death again and again, and some distant part of her mind was listening.

“So devoted to keeping them **all** alive, unwilling to sacrifice any for the others. Now you will lose them all.”

_He is going to kill me,_ she suddenly realized. _He is going to kill me, and everyone will die._ She couldn’t possibly stop him. She had to get someone up. Kane. He was still there, right at her feet, only exhausted. She put all the strength she could spare to him, hoping he could understand.

_Get up, Kane. Get up, get up, get up._

He did. Sunk the bloodstone blade into Matthias’s thigh. Somehow, he couldn’t reach any higher, even standing. For a moment the giant (for he was somehow a giant now, Matthias) staggered and looked as if he might fall. Kane pulled the knife out for another blow, and this crystal-man abomination (she could see it, now) struck him with the back of his hand, and he went spinning across the room.

_Catch him. Catch him. CATCH HIM._

Sorcha ‘caught’ Kane, like the others, softening the impact of the stone, forcing breath into his lungs for him. But she was on the last of her strength, kneeling at the base of her staff now, struggling to breathe herself. And Matthias lifted his own staff slowly, casually.

Sorcha didn’t see what happened next. She heard the axe spinning through the air, as if a great distance off. She felt the ground shake when Matthias fell. But her world had become very small, crouched at the base of her staff, holding each of her friends in her mind. Her mind? In a wave? In a cool mist or a soft shower? Water, ice, steam, spray, frost, and nine friends who were somehow still alive.

And then a warm light. Flowers. Vines. Stars. She was dead, then? Returned to the dream?

No. She was still kneeling in the middle of the pavilion, holding her staff with raw palms. Someone had healed them, healed everyone. She hadn’t failed then, in the end. She’d had help.

Sorcha started crying, though she wasn’t sure why. She dropped the staff, saw the ice crystals bursting between the veins of the woodgrain, splitting it in multiple places. The crystal was barely held to the top.

And then Roborn had his arms around her – Roborn, who was always so shy! – and was whispering, “You did it, Sorcha. You did it.” And she didn’t say anything for a long time, just listened to his voice. Bennett was talking to the others, she could faintly hear, and Kane was arguing with him, but not angrily. And Tacita laughed – laughed!

Rosia cleared her throat behind Roborn, and he finally let Sorcha go.

“As Sorcha’s ‘chaperone,’ I have to say, that hug was a bit long.” But Rosia was smiling. That quiet smile, after a victory, that no one had seen since Mordremoth. “That was really exceptional, Sorcha. You know I don’t say that lightly.”

“It wasn’t me.” Sorcha stopped as Rosia raised an eyebrow. “I mean, it wasn’t just me. Someone else saved us, at the end. Who killed Matthias”

Rosia didn’t answer for a moment, then said softly: “Lillianeth. I think you were right about her.”

Sorcha jumped up and spun around, expecting to find Lily with a sly grin, ducking playfully out of view. But she was nowhere to be seen.

“She left pretty quickly. Didn’t really talk to anyone. Muttered something about the Mantle ruining the jungle.”


End file.
